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Post by ultimateultrasaurus on Oct 16, 2018 12:08:22 GMT -5
So... A bit later than planned, but here we go again.
Well uhm yeah what can I say... Kong is sort of nice in some ways...BUT not without issues (as with a lot of kits in this line) It is hard to not look at him and not think of Gore, PK, Deadly Kong, Gorem or even Hammerrock (because Hammer did way less than this one, but still he has some nostalgic thing going on) and Knuckles comes out ranked much lower than those beforementioned.
If you look at him in a different way (and thus not compare him with better Kongs, which is a bit more fair, for he loses that battle any given day) he has his strong and weak points, but at least he's different than other apes.
The thing I can't get around (AGAIN like many Zoids in this line..) he is way underdressed... Thing is, they focused so much on the whole gimmick that again the armor suffers for it.. It wouldn't even be that much of an issue if they at least gave him something on his back (or made the top back piece black instead of grey..) I know they couldn't give his arms more armor because of the chest pounding Death Blast thing. But if you look at him he looks okay-ish from the front and semi side. But look at him from the side or back....well he just looks skinny, weird and cheap..
I do not care for most Blast gimmicks, but this one was sort of okay (even though he does look like a maracas shaking ape, rather than a chest pounding one). But they indeed did put a lot in that gimmick and the design suffers for it. I actually liked the walking action (as in they tried to make him walk like a tough gorilla) BUT he does look like he's iceskating. Slide slide slide.. And I know because of balance he had to have those long feet, but they do look really silly.. Added to that are his "grabbing" feet, which just look plain stupid..
Hmm.. Okay so he looks bulky from the front and naked from the side and back.. But the walking is semi okay.
The Death Blast mode is something different, so that's nice to see. But he does the pounding thing half baked. I know they probably couldn't have done it better without suffering more in the design department. But it is something different than all the Kongs, so that's at least something right?
However the tabs that slide in when changing from walking to blast mode seem somewhat fragile (as in I can't promise that down the road they might break if you switch between modes very often..) So I bought 2, one for walking mode and one for blast mode (and that saves me from changing and thus maybe damaging the tabs. Maybe one day I'll paint one as well, but for now this option is okay I guess..)
The sprue marks on his arms are crap..(don't know if all the Knuckles have them like this) but you can't quite repair them and they are in plain sight..
So all in all, I sort of like the kit as a whole, but it's not awesome. Gore (or any other Kong) he really won't be. But like I said that's not really fair. In this line he does sort of fit the rest, and in the set (I now have the first 12) he looks okay. Okay, nothing more nothing less. Better than expected but still a bit disappointing nontheless.. Hey at least it's a different kind of ape right? What else can I say..? I said I was surprised, I still just don't know if that's positive or negative.. It's still always better than no new ape.
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Post by ultimateultrasaurus on Oct 16, 2018 12:57:51 GMT -5
Review Part 11: Triceradogos
So...moving on to Trike. The one that most people complained about from the start...because of the yellow.
But first... He took about 30 minutes to build (and 40 minutes extra for checking all parts for sprue marks). Like you must allready know, I take my time, because these kits from the whole Zoids Wild line, do not take that much time to build, but like any other Zoid build, I like to take my time, whether it's 25 hours for a HMM Kong or a motorized kit like this. It's my peace and quiet time so why rush anything?
He has bright green caps (and as always 2 extra) so a lighter green than Grachio has. I can quote myself again, but if you read all previous reviews I wrote, I think I covered all issues this line has. The sprue marks were okay this time, most were not visible and that yellow does serve it's purpose, because you don't see the marks that much (and yes I did fix them all as much as possible..)
Anyhow, here are the parts and then bone mode after that.
HE DOES LOOK AWKWARD FROM THE FRONT (like Liger). It's just not his most charming side..as his flaps (sorry no other way to call them, as they do look like silly flaps from the front) stand out more than I had hoped (more on that later when his armor is on), and because I did not like the Wild Blast..(also more on that later)
But he does look cool from the side though
And just like Grachio, he actually looks less underdressed without his armor than with his armor (because again...he doesn't have enough armor..)
Hmm well yeah...His Wild Blast...
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Post by ultimateultrasaurus on Oct 16, 2018 13:06:23 GMT -5
Yeah his Wild Blast... I would have really really preferred it if just his "horn" came out.. NOT his whole face/head, armor bits... Because when he does the Blast, his head just looks like a stabby sunflower or something.. They were probably trying to do something "original' but I would have been much more content with just his thrust action thing instead of what he does now..
It just doesn't make any sense in him flapping his head parts during the attack.. Besides not being an actual Triceratops (TRI as in three horns) so not an extra one on his forehead, it's just looks really silly.. I like the sudden stabbing motion and the slow retreat, but those added parts that move during that move...no.. I won't be liking that any time soon... It's nice that his mouth opens during the walking cycle and he does walk pretty much okay, lumbering around etc, no problems with that.. Just not the gimmick (again like almost all the Zoids Wild kits..)
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Post by ultimateultrasaurus on Oct 16, 2018 13:16:47 GMT -5
That yellow... I actually don't hate it as much as most people (and no I won't be painting him, or better said I won't be panelling him). As I bought two of this one, I might paint the other one in some cool looking color one day when I build it (red sort of suits him, or maybe a more dinosaur looking color).
He wasn't expensive and either as bone mode extra or custom painted one a second one was a good and cheap option.
But the yellow is really not that bad as you would think when you have him in hand. Sure it's a really weird choice, but then again, it's something different than the other ZW kits (although Fang will of course also be yellow)
I actually forgot to take pics of him doing his WB move with his armor on but I think there are enough of those around the web anyway.
Again with the awkard front view:
And yes like all ZW kits so far, he also suffers from that gap issue (that most people just leave like that, with the gap in between parts) but if done correctly you can close the gaps for most of the parts most of the time (you can see a small gap between both the nose and head, probably did not close it enough when I made the pics)
As you can see from the side... He does... AGAIN... lack some armor. It would have been nice to just have that extra part on his front legs (shoulders in this case) because it's just too much grey and not enough armor (yellow or not, he should have had a bit more armor... THE CURSE OF ALMOST ALL ZW KITS SO FAR...
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Post by ultimateultrasaurus on Oct 16, 2018 13:29:52 GMT -5
However his rider (or rather the way he sits on his Zoid)...questionable.. I can only think "lean back".. It's neither comfortable, functional and just looks plain weird (wow I ran out of words, as silly, awkward, weird or stupid does tend to pop up a lot during these reviews.. Because well yeah not much more ways to describe some of the strange choices they made in these designs..
All moaning aside, he is not as bad as I thought he would be (but therein lies the problem, most of this line are okay-ISH. I still like Gil, Grachio, Gannon and Gabri the most, even though they also have their quirks and issues. I am really looking forward to Death Rex though (A LOT!)
What more is there to say other than that he does sort of grow on you if you actually have him, yellow or not (like I said he could have been ugly bright orange, so it could have been worse.) Was it the best choice? No. But it's really not that bad (even without painting etc) I just don't like that WB (but then again that's the case for most of them), I like the walking and the overall look (except for the missing armor bits..
Anyhoooo...here's some pics with all three new Zoids (with or without flash, and no I didn't put that much effort into the photos as writing these things takes enough time as it is.. Just see for yourself if you like the line enough to buy them all or just select kits, or none at all.
As a group looks kind of okay right?
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Post by ultimateultrasaurus on Oct 16, 2018 13:46:21 GMT -5
So love them or hate them, buy them or don't, there's enough to whine about, there's enough that could have been better (and I sort of dislike this line for it's most likely the reason why Koto isn't allowed to make any other HMM, I've been in businesses, corporations and such for most of my life to know what a business model looks like and it's more than likely TT just didn't want HMM to stand in the way, even though it's stupid, as these are mainly targeted at kids.. And therein lies the problem.. They probably do not want to confuse this generation of possible buyers.. I still think that both lines could and should have co-existed... But that is what it is.. And again new Zoids are still better than no Zoids at all.. Even if they are not the Zoids I was looking for, let alone hoping for, but I also understand the choices regarding catering to another generation.
But I digress. I can moan all day long, I did however buy them all.. So either way they win anyway right? And if these are the only Zoids available, well I guess I will have to buy them (as it has been and is to this day still my longest running hobby.. So I couldn't stop even if I tried and the group shot is getting better everytime with all of them standing next to each other.
On account of that, some group shots to sort of wrap this up. (I had much more, but once again photobucket messed some of those up.. but I had to host them somewhere as putting them directly in the forum weighs to heavy on the site, so it is what it is)
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Post by ultimateultrasaurus on Oct 16, 2018 13:59:53 GMT -5
Once again not the best photos I could possibly make (I know I can take way better pics, better lighting, backgrounds etc, I mean my dad's a photographer, I know I can do better than the ones I made for the reviews.. But why bother.. I takes up way too much time to write them and I am not the only reviewer on the interweb, most people might not even read more than one sentence.
I allready pre-ordered Gusock (two), Stego (two) and WL Special (three). One because they are really cheap, two because I might want to paint the second ones in some cool color or whatever. And I also wanted some more of that faster motor the Liger comes with (first one to get that upgrade is Gabri..) But I am on the fence if I will be wanting to make the effort of writing up reviews, opinions or whatever for those and coming kits after that.
But build and buy them I shall, they are fun enough to look forward to each month so far (also ordered the light-up figs and the new candy toys with Tricera and Kong) to...well.. keep me building Zoids for longer than the 33 years I've been doing so far.
Allrighty, Stego, Gusock and Liger, bring it on (because that means I am that much closer to Catalga, Hunter Wolf (curious to see if I'll like the wolf, so far not that much because of the placing of the eyes, which really messes up the look of his face) AND DEATH REX!!! I am buying at least two of that awesome looking Rex though.
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Post by ultimateultrasaurus on Dec 12, 2018 4:37:00 GMT -5
Gusock, Wild Liger and Stegosage were in really fast after release, built them, now waiting for my 2 Rexies. No new reviews, don't see the use in all the time spent..
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Post by dchan on Dec 13, 2018 2:03:12 GMT -5
Do you mean it doesn't feel like there's enough appreciation for them here? I for one am glad you've been covering all of them, since I don't have a chance to check out every release. But I understand it takes a lot of time to take photos and do a write up, and there's not too much traffic on these boards it seems. Interested in hearing your thoughts on any of them though!
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Post by ultimateultrasaurus on Dec 13, 2018 2:35:38 GMT -5
Thanks for the kind words! Well yeah a bit of both, it's been quiet on the board, and there's also loads of reviews going around everywhere. Plus it indeed takes up a lot of time. So I didn't feel like my stuff added much to photo reviews or video reviews, as most people don't appear to like to read but rather have easy access info.
Well the Gusock was a really nice build, it's something new, nice to do and still different from Valga.
Wild Liger is more of the same, but still sucks that they didn't use dual molded parts (which is getting more common, Bandai and Lego for instance do it) so I see a missed chance to do parts in color. Like the lower jaw of Liger, the tail blade part for Rex etc.
Liger does indeed walk somewhat faster so I will be using one of my 3 kits to speed up Bari (at least).
Stego is actually also really nice, although like always could use some more armor parts. The WB move is still awkard but kind of okay in real life. The kit itself is quite nice when finished.
And having all kits so far, it does start to look nice when you see them all together.
Still do feel that the scale in between ZW kits is way off, Rex and Grachio should have been much bigger... Catalga however is quite large.
Still looking forward to Rex though, even though he has severe size issues..
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Post by cougan on Dec 13, 2018 6:36:38 GMT -5
Thanks for the kind words! Well yeah a bit of both, it's been quiet on the board, and there's also loads of reviews going around everywhere. Plus it indeed takes up a lot of time. So I didn't feel like my stuff added much to photo reviews or video reviews, as most people don't appear to like to read but rather have easy access info. Well the Gusock was a really nice build, it's something new, nice to do and still different from Valga. Wild Liger is more of the same, but still sucks that they didn't use dual molded parts (which is getting more common, Bandai and Lego for instance do it) so I see a missed chance to do parts in color. Like the lower jaw of Liger, the tail blade part for Rex etc. Liger does indeed walk somewhat faster so I will be using one of my 3 kits to speed up Bari (at least). Stego is actually also really nice, although like always could use some more armor parts. The WB move is still awkard but kind of okay in real life. The kit itself is quite nice when finished. And having all kits so far, it does start to look nice when you see them all together. Still do feel that the scale in between ZW kits is way off, Rex and Grachio should have been much bigger... Catalga however is quite large. Still looking forward to Rex though, even though he has severe size issues.. Thanks again for your reviews! Even if i like every Zoid of the line i could understand every aspect you mentioned. Hope to see some more reviews from the new releases! Cougan
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Post by ultimateultrasaurus on Dec 15, 2018 11:05:40 GMT -5
Thanks for the kind words Cougan!
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Post by dchan on Dec 16, 2018 3:32:58 GMT -5
Thanks for your quick thoughts-- even these are really valuable! It's good to know that the Liger walks faster, though from the description I'd have guessed the difference to be greater. Other than that, the only difference is the colors of the armor right?
Looking forward to getting the Stego and Gusock soon... waiting to ship from HLJ.
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Post by Snowflake on Dec 30, 2018 16:13:03 GMT -5
I wasn't able to put my finger on what makes tricera look so awkward, and now I seee.. the frill shape is completely off. it's just like a bunch of mammal ears rammed together, instead of a neck-shielding frill shaped like a saddle. This would work on some kind of frilled lizard zoid, but not a ceratopsian
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Post by ultimateultrasaurus on Jan 4, 2019 12:42:37 GMT -5
dchan thanks! And yes that's pretty much it in difference, the pearl white looks nice though. And the motor is clear red (which looks cool too when taking pictures, you can see part of it through the armor). Snowflake, very much indeed, he does look better in person, but it is like you said, that head (and specifically in WB mode) just looks weird. It would have worked on a Dilopho..but they messed that one up (as it's just a rehashed Craptor).. Death Rex though is really cool (still didn't need that whole WB flapping thing to be honest) but the jaw motion and the light function are cool though. Not much to complain about with Rexie (except they should really think about dualmolded parts, as some parts could really use that detail, looking at you Liger's lowerjaw in black instead of gold!) And I think they should have done the sprues on the inside of the parts. Because those marks are still horribly ugly.. You really have to clean them up as best as you can (as per usual they are in the most visible places, like head, arm etc..) And most irritating about Rex, he's way too small. I've said it before, XL should be XL. There's S (the obvious ones), M (Liger, Hunter etc), L (Stego and Tricera) and XL (Rex and Grachio) But what they call XL is not that XL. In the anime Rex towers over the rest (as it should be) but he's not that big at all.. He would have been so much cooler if he was way larger.. Missing the good old days when XL meant XL
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